Open Access Books

This open access book investigates human-environment relations in the context of the anthropocenic Arctic. Through an archaeological and anthropological study of landscape, it wields “weirding” – a creative mode of engagement with the world – as a means of coming to terms with the stranger, experiential dimensions of a planet populated by diverse non-human entities often bearing monstrous characteristics. Such entities are exemplified by climate change itself, at once human-induced and a force of its own volition that maintains an elusive “presence” as a co-inhabitant of the Anthropocene. The book focuses on the landscape of Ritničohkka, a fjell in Sápmi, Finnish Lapland. Ritničohkka is erstwhile home to a diminutive “glacier”, whose “weird”, anomalous characteristics crowned the fjell until it several years ago melted into history. Taking a broadly autoethnographic approach, it considers perceptions of, and affective experiences in, this rough and relatively remote, “otherworldly” environment, discussing diverse ways of encountering and relating to the Arctic in the context of scientific fieldwork.

Warum treffen sich soziale Bewegungen? Dieser Frage geht Rainald Manthe am Beispiel der transnationalen Bewegungskonferenz des Weltsozialforums nach. Mithilfe einer interaktionssoziologischen Perspektive zeigt er auf, welche Eigenleistungen die Sozialform der (physischen) Interaktion für das Zustandekommen und den Erfolg der Treffen sozialer Bewegungen erbringt. Hierzu analysiert er, wie eine fragile Interaktionsordnung konstruiert, Verstehen ermöglicht und Zusammenhalt geschaffen wird - und dadurch Alternativen lebbar werden. Dabei wird deutlich, dass es nicht nur bei sozialen Bewegungen einen Eigenwert hat, sich leibhaftig zu treffen, anstatt über technische Medien zu kommunizieren.

Gender equality goals have proven to be difficult for organizations to achieve. Management scholars attribute gender equality's intractability to decoupling: Organizations adopt structures, policies and programs that fail to deliver their intended outcomes. We present a conceptual framework that draws on recent developments in institutional logics, acknowledging that stakeholders are diverse and care about different things at different times. Our framework portrays organizational activities as operating across three distinct metaphorical spaces (physical, mental, and social). Physical space describes the organization's formal structures, policies and programs. Mental space is the organizational members' shared meaning about the organization's identity (including what management researchers have called diversity climate). Social space is the external stakeholders' shared perception of the organization's identity (including what management researchers have called diversity reputation). Management literature has historically emphasized activities originating in the physical space. We use case examples to illustrate how organizations might avoid decoupling by simultaneously attending to all three spaces. The framework identifies opportunities for organizations to harness cross-space dynamics, embrace divergent institutional logics, and enable progress toward gender equality.

Serielle Medien wollen massenmedial verstärkte Resonanzen erzielen. Sie generieren ein historisch wandelbares Wissen, das sie für die Selbstverständigungen in Kultur und Gesellschaft relevant, d.h. für Kulturdiagnosen geeignet macht. Diese mediale Spezifik wird im vorliegenden Band systematisch wie historisch auf die Frage nach der Popularisierung und Reflexion von Technikwissen und Technikdiskursen hin untersucht. Fernsehserien bieten sich dafür wegen ihrer eigenen Zeitlichkeit an: Sie können sich narrativ komplex entfalten, auch weil in ihrer Plot-Anlage ein Ende nicht notwendig gesetzt wird. Fernsehserien bilden Technik in ihren Folgen dabei nicht nur thematisch ab, vielmehr organisieren technische Mittel ihre Darstellungsformen selbst. In Fallstudien zu einzelnen Serien dokumentiert vorliegender Band Facetten solcher Technikreflexionen. Abschließend stellt er eine Typologie ihrer Formvarianten zur Diskussion.

It is widely accepted that we each possess a right against interference with our body. In this book, Thomas Douglas argues that we each also possess an analogous right against interference with our mind. Douglas offers two arguments in favour of the view that we possess this right. The first appeals to intuitions regarding cases. Douglas describes a series of cases in which one individual influences the mind of another in a seemingly wrongful way, and argues that we can best account for the wrongfulness of these influences by invoking a right against mental interference. The second argument appeals to the notion of self-ownership. According to this argument, our ownership of ourselves implies ownership of our minds, which in turn implies a right against interference with our minds. Douglas then turns to the task of defining the scope of the right against mental interference. On the view he develops, the right against mental interference protects us against some actions that alter our mental states via processes that are insensitive to the reasons that bear on the alteration. The interventions that most obviously infringe the right are ‘nonconsensual neurointerventions’—interventions that alter a person’s mental states by physically modulating their brain states—and are performed without the target’s consent. But Douglas argues that some psychological forms of influence can infringe the right too. Examples include the use of subliminal imagery and conditioning-based interventions, such as the use of loot boxes in computer games.

This open access five-volume set constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second World Conference on Explainable Artificial Intelligence, xAI 2025, held in Istanbul, Turkey, during July 2025. The 96 revised full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 224 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Volume I: Concept-based Explainable AI; human-centered Explainability; explainability, privacy, and fairness in trustworthy AI; and XAI in healthcare. Volume II: Rule-based XAI systems & actionable explainable AI; features importance-based XAI; novel post-hoc & ante-hoc XAI approaches; and XAI for scientific discovery. Volume III: Generative AI meets explainable AI; Intrinsically interpretable explainable AI; benchmarking and XAI evaluation measures; and XAI for representational alignment. Volume IV: XAI in computer vision; counterfactuals in XAI; explainable sequential decision making; and explainable AI in finance & legal frameworks for XAI technologies. Volume V: Applications of XAI; human-centered XAI & argumentation; explainable and interactive hybrid decision making; and uncertainty in explainable AI.

Este ensayo etnográfico (re)interpreta la gramática de la sociedad peruana, a través de una lectura sociopolítica e histórica de las principales carreteras de alcance nacional e internacional. La carretera Interoceánica Sur y la noción de desarrollo presentes en las representaciones de la ciudadanía, la prensa y el Estado son el centro de análisis y discusión del libro. »Distopía del Desarrollo Vial« desvela en consecuencia, los argumentos discursivos usados por diferentes gobiernos para promover la construcción de megaproyectos viales poniendo en relieve la discusión moderna latinoamericana sobre redes de transporte y comunicación e integración político-cultural.

In che modo le scelte alimentari partecipano ai processi di identificazione di genere? Che legami esistono, oggigiorno, tra i modi di essere e dirsi maschi e le pratiche alimentari adottate dagli uomini? Tramite lo studio di regimi alimentari (diete vegetariane, vegane, digiuno, riduzione del consumo di carne...), di tecniche di cura del corpo e della salute, e tramite l’esplorazione delle asimmetrie che caratterizzano il ruolo degli uomini e delle donne in cucina, il volume interroga i processi contemporanei di costruzione delle maschilità in età adulta, in Francia e in Italia. Una ricerca originale, ancorata su dati empirici, che esplora gli stili di vita odierni, le disuguaglianze sociali nell’accesso ai consumi, e gli inattesi intrecci fra cibo, scelte a tavola e riconfigurazioni della maschilità.

An invigorating annual for those who are interested in medieval textual cultures and open to ways in which diverse post-modern methodologies may be applied to them." Alcuin Blamires Review of English Studies"

Uma investigação sobre as memórias fragmentadas e imaginadas em torno do assassinato de Leocádia de Tal na Bahia de 1800. Com base em uma diversidade de documentos, como inquéritos policiais, processos-crimes e relatos orais, a obra faz surgir novas perspectivas sobre o cotidiano, as espiritualidades populares e a historicidade das violências contra as mulheres. O livro convida o leitor a percorrer os caminhos da memória no antigo arraial de Beija-Flor (Guanambi), revelando as dinâmicas de uma vida social marcada por ritos, conflitos e desigualdades nos rincões do país.

Recently, there has been a growing awareness of the need to make better use of natural resources. Hence, the utilization of biomass has led to so-called biorefinery, consisting of the fractionation or separation of the different components of the lignocellulosic materials in order to achieve a total utilization of the same, and not only of the cellulosic fraction for paper production. The use of plant biomass as a basic raw material implies a shift from an economy based on the exploitation of non-renewable fossil fuels, with limited reserves or with regeneration cycles far below the rates of exploitation, to a bioeconomy based on the use of renewable organic natural resources, with balanced regeneration and extraction cycles. To make this change, profound readjustments in existing technologies are necessary, as well as the application of new approaches in research, development, and production."Biorefinery" is the term used to describe the technology for the fractionation of plant biomass into energy, chemicals, and consumer goods. The future generation of biorefinery will include treatments, leading to high-value-added compounds. The use of green chemistry technologies and principles in biorefineries, such as solvent and reagent recovery and the minimization of effluent and gas emissions, is essential to define an economically and environmentally sustainable process.In particular, the biorefinery of lignocellulosic materials to produce biofuels, chemicals and materials is presented as a solid alternative to the current petrochemical platform and a possible solution to the accumulation of greenhouse gases.

Janusz Majewski w latach 70. i 80. XX wieku, dzięki współpracy kinematografii polskiej i czechosłowackiej, stworzył trzy bardzo zróżnicowane gatunkowo i estetycznie filmy: Zaklęte rewiry (1975) na podstawie książki Henryka Worcella pod takim samym tytułem, melodramatyczną Słoną różę (1982), będącą trawestacją powieści Ryszarda Frelka oraz historyczny dramat kostiumowy – Czarny wąwóz (1988). Wieloletnia współpraca (i przyjaźń) Janusza Majewskiego ze scenarzystą Pavlem Hajným zaowocowała też scenariuszem do kultowego filmu C.K. Dezerterzy (1985). Janusz Majewski opowiada o realiach produkcyjnych i okolicznościach warunkujących podejmowanie współpracy z kinematografią czechosłowacką. Reżyser wspomina także o zauroczeniu mentalnością i sposobem bycia Czechów, swojej miłości do języka czeskiego, estymie do czeskiego filmu i kinematografii, słabości do czeskiego piwa oraz kuchni, wynikających też – jak sam twierdzi – z jego galicyjskiego rodowodu.

Every cell in our body including red blood cells is covered with special markers called antigens, a substance that triggers the immune system response. Millions of antigens are present on the membrane of red blood cells and are ignored by the immune system because they are self-antigens. However, if a person receives a transfusion of blood that contains different antigens from their own blood, there will be a severe and immediate attack by the cells of the immune system. Therefore, it is important to use the patient’s same blood group for the transfusion. The blood group antigens not only perform a critical role in the function of cells but can also be used by viruses to gain access into the cells. This book includes nine chapters on different blood group antigens and their activities behind the scenes. Chapters address blood antigens and their association with cardiovascular diseases, thromboembolic diseases, malaria, and many other diseases and infections.

"This grammar provides a grammatical description of Palula, an Indo-Aryan language of the Shina group. The language is spoken by about 10,000 people in the Chitral district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. This is the first extensive description of the formerly little-documented Palula language, and is one of only a few in-depth studies available for languages in the extremely multilingual Hindukush-Karakoram region. The grammar is based on original fieldwork data, collected over the course of about ten years, commencing in 1998. It is primarily in the form of recorded, mainly narrative, texts, but supplemented by targeted elicitation as well as notes of observed language use. All fieldwork was conducted in close collaboration with the Palula-speaking community, and a number of native speakers took active part in the process of data gathering, annotation and data management. The main areas covered are phonology, morphology and syntax, illustrated with a large number of example items and utterances, but also a few selected lexical topics of some prominence have received a more detailed treatment as part of the morphosyntactic structure. Suggestions for further research that should be undertaken are given throughout the grammar. The approach is theory-informed rather than theory-driven, but an underlying functional-typological framework is assumed. Diachronic development is taken into account, particularly in the area of morphology, and comparisons with other languages and references to areal phenomena are included insofar as they are motivated and available. The description also provides a brief introduction to the speaker community and their immediate environment. "

Focuses on the activities of the Coalition Provisional Authority during the first year of the occupation of Iraq. Based on interviews and nearly 100,000 never-before-released documents from CPA archives, the book recounts and evaluates the efforts of the United States and its coalition partners to restore public services, counter a burgeoning insurgency, and create the basis for representative government.